


Monkey D. Toma and the Saiyan Blood Inheritance

by PieWritesFics



Category: Dragon Ball, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, One Piece
Genre: Female Harry Potter, Gen, Girl-Who-Lived (Harry Potter), Harry Potter is a Little Shit, I wasn't supposed to be writing this, Master of Death Harry Potter, Monkey D. Luffy should not be allowed to name children, Toma is Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-01-23 05:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PieWritesFics/pseuds/PieWritesFics
Summary: What happens when this author tries to get back into writing for kid!fics she hasn't touched in years? A crossover no one asked for, apparently.ORDeath decides to visit his counter-part Davy Jones and bestow a present of chaos-- and no, he doesn't mean the Potter kid's unruly hair!This is the story of Monkey D. Toma, formerly known as Belladonna Potter, and her life with her brothers as a "monster" of East Blue and the Mugiwara Kaizoku. (It is also a cautionary tale about letting a four-year-old pick a name for the baby on the fly.)
Relationships: Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks & Harry Potter, Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks & Monkey D. Luffy, Death & Davy Jones, Death & Harry Potter, Monkey D. Luffy & Harry Potter, Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo & Harry Potter, Monkey D. Luffy & Sabo, Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates & Harry Potter, Portgas D. Ace & Harry Potter, Sabo (One Piece) & Harry Potter
Comments: 16
Kudos: 134





	1. I'm Sayin' She's a Saiyan

**Author's Note:**

> Should I have been writing something else? Yes, yes I should have. And I am... slowly. This is mostly an idea that wouldn't get out of my head, and also happened to be good practice for getting back into writing for kid!Harry and kid!ASL brothers. My arthritis is a cruel mistress, and the fact I wrote all of this in one afternoon/evening is a miracle.
> 
> That said, this is 100% for fun and updates will likely be sporadic. So far I've managed to keep my Fire Emblem/Zelda BotW fic on SOMETHING like a schedule, and I'm going to keep that as first priority for as long as possible. 
> 
> For now, everyone please enjoy!

Being abandoned in the woods by her aunt was probably the best thing that could have happened to Belladonna Potter, given the circumstances. Not only did her magic make her a “freak,” in their eyes (and how could she be anything but magical, with _ those two _ for parents?) it was quickly becoming apparent that the toddler would not put up with their abuse.

She hit back--_ hard. _ Not even two years old and she’d broken Vernon’s cheekbone when he’d picked her up to scream in her face for _ daring _ to cry. It had taken one kick from her tiny, bare foot, and the sickening crunch that sounded along with the large man’s howl of pain had satisfied something primal within her. It had been the last straw for the Dursleys. Vernon had announced he’d be going to the hospital, and told Petunia explicitly that, _ “that little freak had better be gone when I get back or else!” _

So Petunia sent Dudders to her friend Mrs. Polkiss’s house (lovely, normal family with a perfectly normal little boy for her son to play with), strapped her sister’s horrible little monster into her son’s car seat, and drove. 

* * *

Death looked on, unimpressed. He waited for Petunia Dursley to drive away, leaving her niece in the cold November night and gave her a full fifteen minutes to turn around and change her mind about letting a baby die of exposure. The woman never looked back once.

There were a few options Death could take. He could give his little Master to a nice non-magical family somewhere far away, one that would take care of her as their own. It would hardly be the first time he facilitated a Changeling, after all. _ Or… _

The area at the base of Belladonna’s spine shimmered with a glamour; it took a mere snap of Death’s skeletal fingers to reveal what was underneath.

A soft-furred prehensile tail.

A bone-chilling laugh echoed in the forest, joined by a childish giggle.

“Well Miss Potter, it seems you’ve inherited more than your unruly hair from your father’s line. It must be nearing some six hundred years ago now that that blood was introduced,” the entity mused. ‘A power the Dark Lord knows not’ indeed!

Death could give the Kais an aneurysm over having yet another Saiyan to deal with… but that would be too easy. Little Belladonna curled her tail around Death’s wrist, giggling to herself again. She truly had no fear, and it rather reminded the being of--

_ Oh. _

Oh, he knew what to do with her.

* * *

Davy Jones stared at his fellow Personification of Death, nonplussed. “Than, why do you have a toddler?”

“She’s a present,” Thanatos (“just call me Death”) said simply.

“...Uhuh. _Why?_”

“I remembered what you told me about that Revolutionary woman and the Pirate fellow and their son, and how much you complained about all of the shite that’s supposed to happen in the next twenty years or so,” Thanatos shrugged, bouncing the tiny Saiyan on his hip. “Figured the kid could use a--”

“If you say ‘monkey wrench,’ I swear to the Creators--”

“Wild card--"

“Seas’ sakes, that’s _ worse! _”

“--in his corner.”

Davy Jones took a swig of whiskey. He found himself doing that a lot lately, and even more when any “colleagues” decided to visit. “Alright. What did you have in mind?”

Somehow the excitement managed to make the other entity’s skeletal grin even more menacing.

* * *

It was a lovely morning in East Blue, nary a cloud in the sky with the sun shining happily down on the residents of Fuusha Village. Makino, the young owner of the resident pub Party’s Bar, was taking advantage of the refreshing sea breeze and off-hours to hang laundry. 

_ “Gyah!” _

Or she was, until she found a face in her laundry basket.

Two startling green eyes opened, still bleary from sleep, and blinked up at the disturbance. The face was attached to a baby, maybe a little over a year old if Makino had to take a guess. “Where on earth did you come from?” she fussed, moving the clothes aside to get a better look at the little one.

Having heard her shout and come to investigate, four year old Monkey D. Luffy came around the side of the house just in time to see the tiny human sit up in the laundry. “A baby!” he shouted. 

Makino shushed him, not wanting his excitable nature to scare the child. “Come here and say hello, Luffy. But please don’t shout. We wouldn’t want to scare the baby with the noise, ne?”

“Right!” he nodded seriously, muffling his voice to a whisper. It might be overdoing it, but for all he didn’t seem to care Luffy _ was _ aware he could be a little much for other children. He’d never actually seen a baby up close and didn’t want to scare it.

“Tiny,” he muttered once he’d gotten close. Seeing those green eyes looking at him, he grinned. “Hi! I’m Monkey D. Luffy! Nice ta meet’cha!”

“Ba,” the baby said. Makino chuckled.

“I think this little one might not be old enough to talk much yet, Luffy.”

“Oh…” He tried not to be disappointed. “Well, that’s okay, Baby. We can still play until you gotta leave.” The boy turned large brown eyes on his caretaker. “Ne, Makino, how long are we keeping the baby? Is it a long time? I hope it’s a long time!” He stopped bouncing suddenly, tilting his head. “Ne, Makino, why is the baby in your laundry basket?”

Makino sighed, already feeling like this was going to be a long day. “You know Luffy, I wish I knew.” She picked the child up out of the basket, grateful to find a secure diaper attached, and almost dropped the baby right back in when Luffy shouted.

“THE BABY’S GOT A _ TAIL!! _ That’s so _ COOL _ , _ I _wanna tail!”

Makino slowly turned the baby around. There was, indeed, a tail poking through a hole cut into the diaper. Looking up at the sky, Makino prayed for patience and a decent stock of her favorite energizing tea blend. She was going to be needing plenty of both.

* * *

Two hours later, Makino sat at her kitchen table and patted herself on the back for not getting rid of Luffy’s high chair when he’d outgrown it. The baby-- who was a girl and did, in fact, have an attached, fully functional prehensile tail --was strapped in and giggling while she smooshed peas on the tray with the older boy. The local doctor had given her a look over and, aside from a nasty cut on her forehead, given her a clean bill of health. 

The woman smiled softly, watching her charge laugh when the baby wrapped her tail around his wrist and made him wave to her. “Ne, Makino, know what?” he asked.

“What is it Luffy?” 

“I think she’s supposed to be our baby,” he answered seriously.

Makino blinked. “What do you mean, Luffy?” It was true that no one in Fuusha was missing a toddler, let alone one with a tail, but surely she must have someone looking for her somewhere… right?

“Well,” the four year old began, letting the tail manipulate his fingers, “we don’ know where she came from, right? And she was in your laundry basket. An’ she’s gotta tail like a monkey, an’ my name’s Monkey. So… I think she’s ours. S’possedta be. Yeah.”

She considered this. It was true they didn’t know where she had come from, or how they could even begin to go about returning her, so the best thing to do would be to care for her here. Between the payments Garp gave her to look after Luffy and the revenue from the bar, Makino could well afford it, especially if she modified Luffy’s old clothes to fit. If someone came looking for her, they would proceed from there, but in the meanwhile… “If she’s our baby, she’s going to need a name. We can’t just keep calling her Baby.”

Luffy pouted. “Why not?”

“Luffy.”

“Okay okay,” he whined. “Lessee, uh… um…” The boy’s face scrunched in concentration, brown eyes flitting from one thing to another in an effort to find some inspiration. They landed on Makino’s fruit bowl and paused. Right at the top was a huge, red, _ juicy looking _ tomato, and Luffy positively beamed. “How ‘bout Toma?”

“That’s very pretty, Luffy,” Makino said, not following the little boy’s thought process at all. “What do you think, Toma?”

The baby blinked, sticking a mashed-pea covered fist into her mouth. Her tail was still playing with Luffy’s fingers.

From that day forward Luffy would introduce her as Monkey D. Toma, his baby sister.

* * *

Thanatos-just-call-me-Death smiled, giving himself and an increasingly drunk Davy Jones a pat on the back for a job well done. The two of them would be enjoying this for years to come.

He shivered, anticipating the scrambling Old Dumbledore would be doing when the preachy wizard realized his _ Savior _ had been misplaced.

He couldn’t wait!

(Davy Jones,_ well_ on his way to being truly sloshed, recognized the look on his colleague’s face and took another drink.

He was going to be needing more whiskey.)

* * *

“Wazzat?” Toma said, pointing to a speck on the horizon. Now nearly four, her vocabulary had grown quite a bit, but she’d never seen the point in talking long-windedly when short sentences would do just as well. 

Luffy stood next to her on the dock, raising both hands to shield his eyes and squinting into the distance. “I _ think _… it’s a… ship.” He squinted some more, tilting his head sideways to see if the change in angle helped. It didn’t.

“What are you two hooligans gawking at?” a gruff voice sounded. “You know better than to play around on the docks!”

“Hi Mayor Woop Slap,” Luffy greeted. His sister just pointed at the speck again, looking the mayor dead in the eye and bluntly stating, _ “Ship.” _ (Toma didn’t like the Mayor very much. Luffy figured it was because the man yelled a lot, which she didn’t appreciate, and ordered them around, which Luffy would have said his sister resented if he had had that word in his vocabulary.)

Woop Slap frowned, reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a small spyglass. Turning it in the direction the little girl pointed, he quickly found the ship she was talking about and felt the color drain from his face.

“Who is it, who is it?” Luffy bounced, not reading the mayor’s change in mood at all. “Is it Grampa? It is meat?!”

“You kids get inside,” he said shakily.

Luffy blinked, and Toma tilted her head in question. “But--”

“No buts!” he snapped, finally taking his eye off the Jolly Roger headed their way. “Go home to Makino! Now!”

The two children nearly tripped over themselves in their haste to get to Party’s Bar. Neither one of them had ever seen Mayor Woop Slap so mad before.

* * *

Word spread quickly through the town: Pirates on the horizon. Arriving within the day. By the time the large ship dropped anchor, every citizen of Fuusha Village not willing or able to fight if it came down to it was shut up tight in their houses.

Makino, having made her pub even more spotless than usual, had banished her two young wards to the flat upstairs. They were not pleased.

“I’ve never seen a real pirate before,” Luffy lamented, standing on tiptoes to see over the windowsill and down into the deserted street. Toma grunted from her spot sitting on the floor. She was even more unhappy with the situation, knowing visitors meant she would have to hide her tail until they left. Her brother suddenly straightened, pushing up even more to see. “Toma, Toma, here they come!”

She hurried over, gripping onto the windowsill and pulling herself to balance on her arms with her feet dangling. She wrapped her tail around her waist like a belt to be sure it would stay out of sight. Luffy put one arm under his sister's butt so she wouldn’t fall.

The pirates didn’t look all that scary, being led through town by the mayor and one or two of the fishermen who lived in the village. Sure, they were grownups and some of them were big, like that one guy munching on a turkey leg, but Toma didn’t think they seemed mean. One of the pirates, a skinny man with blonde dreadlocks and pistol on either hip, looked right up at them.

Toma and Luffy froze, worried their spying would anger the pirates, but the man just winked at them and kept walking.

* * *

Shanks wanted booze. And food. But mostly booze. Luckily, this tiny town in East Blue seemed up to providing him with it, though the bespectacled mayor stiffly insisting on escorting them was putting a bit of a damper on his mood. Or maybe that was the fact that all the town’s people were cowering in their homes.

_ ‘They must not get a lot of pirates out here,’ _ he deduced. He wouldn’t keep the Red Force here for long, not if their mere presence terrified the people. 

“This is Party’s Bar,” the mayor, who’d introduced himself as Woop Slap, told them. “The best, and quite frankly only, pub in Fuusha Village. Makino will be happy to serve you and your crew, but please keep in mind that she’s only one woman and can only work so quickly while providing you with quality service.”

“Of course. Thank you very much for the escort, Mayor.” Not that he’d given them much choice, but if it made the townsfolk feel more at ease, Shanks wasn’t about to tell the man to piss off.

Just before entering, Yasopp nudged him in the arm, discreetly pointing to a window upstairs. Shanks peeked through the brim of his straw hat, seeing two dark-haired children watching them. The redhead smiled at Yasopp when the other man sent them a wink, noting that their eyes seemed more curious than frightened.

“Hello,” the young woman behind the counter greeted them. “What can I get for you gentlemen today?”

Over the next few hours, Shanks ate, drank, ate again, drank some more, and properly introduced himself to Makino the barmaid. He avoided mentioning her children upstairs, and deliberately herded his men out at seven-thirty after leaving a generous tip so that she could clean up and get the kids to bed at a reasonable hour.

The next day, at just past noon, Shanks and most of his crew returned for lunch. They ignored the flinching of the villagers as they walked to Party’s Bar. At least they weren’t locked up tight in their homes still, which was a good sign. Stepping inside, Shanks saw the children from the window drinking cups of apple juice at the bar with sandwiches in front of them. Makino wasn’t in sight, so Shanks figured she must have stepped into the back for a moment.

“You’re the pirates from yesterday!” the little boy cried, twisting in his seat to face them. “Me’n’my sister were at the docks yesterday an’ we saw your ship when it was _ waayyy _ way out!” The little girl next to him, presumably his sister, nodded along with his excited explanation. She hadn’t taken her green eyes off them since they’d come in, or taken her sippy cup away from her mouth. Shanks was starting to wonder if she was actually drinking from it or if she was just chewing on the cover.

“Is that so?” Shanks asked indulgently.

“Mhmm, mhmm!” The kid took a deep breath before starting again. Shanks was kind of impressed with his lung capacity. “I never seen a pirate before, an’ Makino was really happy when she tucked us in last night. Grampa says pirates’re mean and bad and hurt people, but Makino wasn’t hurt and she wasn’t cryin’ like if you were mean to her, so does that make you good pirates? Can pirates be good? Do you have any funny stories?”

Shanks laughed, reaching out and ruffling the kid’s hair on impulse. “_ Dahahaha, _ whoa, slow down kiddo! I can’t answer you if you just keep asking more questions.”

“_ Shishishi, _ sorry!”

Makino came back just then, wiping her hands off on her apron. “Oh, Captain Shanks! Welcome back, I hope you weren’t waiting too long.”

“Not at all, Makino-san,” he assured her. His nakama had taken the last few minutes to spread out at the tables. Unable to resist a bit of teasing, he added, “The kids here were doing well enough as hosts, but I figured them a bit young to be serving us alcohol.”

“A round of sake, coming up,” Makino said, shaking her head a bit at the jape. She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the pirate captain, but he certainly wasn’t dull. “And I suppose you two introduced yourselves,” she asked the kids while pulling out glasses.

“Oops,” the boy said. The girl had finally moved the sippy away from her mouth, and looked as though she’d tasted something sour. The older child looked back at Shanks, who’d taken a seat next to him at the bar. 

“I’m Monkey D. Luffy!” he declared with a wide grin. Shanks blinked. Luffy reached one arm over and patted at the smaller child’s spiky hair. “An’ this is my little sister Toma! She doesn’t talk a lot, but she bites if you make her mad so don’t put your fingers near her mouth prob’ly.” 

The pirates seated around the place laughed at that, those who had been served already taking a swig of alcohol. Toma waved with one hand and grinned to show off her sharp canine teeth, making some of the men pale slightly at the thought of losing a finger to a pissed off three-year-old. Yasopp, and one or two others who had kids back home, just laughed harder or looked nostalgic. Shanks had a feeling he’d be getting Usopp Story Time later tonight.

“Well, Luffy and Toma, it’s very nice to meet you both.” Baterilla flashed in his mind, and he refused to care that they were related to Monkey D. Garp, of all people. They were children, they were not responsible for the actions adults had taken, least of all before they were born. “My name is Shanks, though people call me Red Hair.”

“‘Cause your hair’s red,” Luffy said around a mouthful of sandwich. His sister whacked him hard between his shoulder blades. “_Oww!_ _Toma,_ wha’wazzat for?!”

“Makino says don’ talk with your mouth full,” she recited, speaking for the first time since the pirates had come in. Toma stuck her tongue out in response to her brother’s injured whining, and somehow Luffy trying to grab it resulted in the two children on the floor grappling like unruly puppies.

Shanks burst out laughing, waving Makino off when she broke them apart and started apologizing. He was starting to like this town.


	2. Pirates & Bandits & Grampa, Oh My!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being saved by Shanks & the Akagami Kaizoku from the bandits lead by Higuma, Luffy and Toma express their ambitious intentions to become great pirates themselves. Shanks entrusts them with his straw hat, a memento from his own captain, and tells them to return it some day after they achieve this. Garp has a must less positive reaction, and drags his grandkids up Mt. Corvo to the Dadan Family- a group of mountain bandits.

If someone had told Shanks a year ago that his honor would be defended by a Marine Vice Admiral's seven-year-old grandson and his four-year-old sister, Shanks would have laughed in that person’s face and then had Doc check that no one had tampered with the booze.

Alas, here he was. And there was Luffy, the little boy he’d come to care greatly for, being dangled in the air by a gun-wielding mountain bandit.

A gun-wielding mountain bandit who was suddenly howling in pain from Toma viciously embedding her teeth in his arm. 

The next ten minutes were a blur of adrenaline, and at the end of it Shanks had two sobbing children gripping onto his shirt against the waves, and a bloody stump where his left arm used to be. Looking down at the kids, distressed but alive, the redhead smiled softly. He didn’t regret it.

* * *

Shanks watched his nakama finish loading the ship. Over the past year, they had left and returned many times, and each time Luffy and Toma would stand at the docks and beg and plead to go with them. But this time was different. They would be returning to the Grand Line, and staying there for the foreseeable future. They wouldn’t be seeing Luffy and Toma again for years, and Shanks knew his crew would be missing them just as much as he would.

Two sets of light footsteps came up behind him, and Shanks smiled without turning around. 

“You’re leaving.”

“Yes,” Shanks nodded. “We’ve stayed here for a long time, but it’s time to leave. Are you going to miss us?”

“Yeah, we’ll miss you,” Luffy answered.

“We decided,” Toma began, “that we’re not gonna ask you to take us with you this time.”

“We’re gonna become pirates on our own!” Luffy declared. 

On an impulse he couldn’t resist, Shanks turned around and stuck his tongue out at them playfully. “I wouldn’t take you along anyway! _ You two _, pirates? Don’t make me laugh!”

“We’re gonna be!” Luffy shouted. Toma was pulling one of her eyelids down and sticking her tongue out right back at him. The Akagami Kaizoku were watching the exchange with fond smiles on their faces. “We’ll gather our own crew that’ll be even_ better _ than yours, and then we’ll go to the Grand Line and find the One Piece! No matter what happens, _ I’ll be King of the Pirates!!” _

“_ Oh~ _ you’re going to beat us,” Shanks teased. “In that case…” He took his hat off, pushing it down onto Luffy’s head so it covered half the kid’s face. “I’ll let you take care of this hat for me. It’s very important to me, so I expect it in good condition.” The little boy’s fingers curled around the brim, not wanting his hero to see him start to cry. Toma looked up at Shanks with teary eyes, biting her lip to try to keep it from wobbling. 

“Return it to me someday, after you’ve become great pirates. Okay? It’s a promise.”

* * *

If she had known Grampa was going to drag them up the mountain, Toma mused, she would have argued harder for stowing away with Shanks.

It had been just under two months since the Akagami Kaizoku had left Fuusha for good, and Garp was predictably unhappy with his grandchildren’s chosen career path. He was almost equally unhappy to find out that the pirates knew about Toma’s tail. It was with this mindset that the old Marine swung Luffy and Toma over his shoulder like so much game and brought them to a scary looking woman named Curly Dadan.

A mountain bandit.

Even Toma, at barely five years old and generally unable to follow adult logic, knew this was not going to go the way Garp was hoping.

Luffy was running around the clearing in circles, already bored out of his mind even though they’d just gotten there. Normally Toma was all for chasing her brother around, but a smell from the woods had caught her attention. Her nose twitched as she turned, seeking out the source.

In the shadows of the treeline, there was a mountain of something her nose identified as bear. A _ very large _ bear. Her nose also told her it was dead, and if she had to guess the older boy sat on top of it had something to do with that. He was staring at them all coldly, and Toma felt the hair on her tail bristle. She shivered.

Her instincts were saying this boy would be a good fight.

“Eh? Toma? What’cha lookin’ at?” Luffy asked. He felt something wet collide with his face and brought his hand up. “Ew, _ spit! _ Gross!”

In a blink Toma was up on top of the dead bear and in the older boy’s space. The sudden proximity made him flinch back in shock, not having expected the tiny girl to jump the huge carcass in one go. Still on the ground, Luffy briefly considered warning the other boy about his sister’s penchant for biting, but dismissed it. He still hadn’t apologized for spitting on him!

The grownups had been arguing in the background, but had finally noticed what was going on.

“Ace, you’re back!” the bandits chorused.

“Oh good, you kids are making friends already,” Garp commented. He moved away from the group, no longer paying the other adults any mind. “Luffy, Toma, this is Ace. He’s three years older than you are, Luffy, so that makes him almost six years older than Toma.” The little girl scowled at this, still crouched next to him on the bear. Her face was only a few inches away from Ace’s, keeping solid eye contact, and it was clearly confounding the boy. “You’ll be living here with him from today, so _ be nice!” _

_ “EHHhh?!!” _

Garp snapped his head around, glowering at the bandits. “Is that a problem?” he asked menacingly.

“N-no!” they stuttered. “We’ll take them, sir!”

“There is the matter of child support…” the smallest bandit muttered.

“Ah, of course. Just add it to my tab,” he replied casually.

“This isn’t a bar!” Dadan snapped.

Tuning them out, Luffy focused back on his sister’s staring contest. It was actually impressive how long this Ace boy was lasting against her. Finally, Toma spoke.

“Spittin’s gross,” she said quietly. “You should say sorry.”

Ace scoffed, not bothering to reply before jumping off the carcass and walking towards the house. He didn’t look at any of them, even when he had to move around Luffy when the younger boy stepped in his way to demand an apology.

* * *

Over the next few months, Ace tried his absolute best to avoid and ignore the younger children. This included, but was not limited to:

Taking impossible routes through the mountain.

Using his longer legs and more extensive stamina to outrun the two.

And on one particularly memorable day, cutting the support rope to the bridge over the ravine _ while they were on it. _

None of this actually worked to deter them, though the last one had earned him a mudball to the face from an angry Toma the next time she’d caught sight of him. For some reason the clingy brats were determined to be his friends, and Ace was… confused. He was mean to them, ignored them, caused them physical injury, and still they persisted in following him around like demented baby ducks.

_ Really dumb _ dememted baby ducks!

He’d taken to complaining to Sabo about them. His friend was equally aghast at their reported lack of self-preservation.

And _ both of them _ were equally horrified to see Luffy standing under their Pirate Fund tree, grinning happily up at them after finally succeeding in tailing Ace.

And that should have been his first clue, really, because it was _ never just _ Luffy. There was always Toma there, too, either just over the small boy’s shoulder or lurking nearby with those green eyes wide and watching. In his panic at their Pirate Fund being discovered, all thought of the little girl had completely slipped Ace’s mind until—

“Wait,” Sabo said suddenly, looking up from where they’d tied the seven-year-old. “Where’s the other one?”

“‘M right here,” Toma said, standing not even three feet behind them and idly picking her nose. 

_ “Gah!” _

_ “Shit!” _

She didn’t seem bothered by their agitated state, or the fact that her brother had been jumped and restrained. “That’s a lotta rope,” the girl commented. “If it took that much rope to get around the tree, why didn’t you just use less rope and wrap him up like a cocoon?”

The older pair looked at each other. “We didn’t think of that,” Sabo admitted.

“Don’t tell her that!”

“Well it’s true!”

“I’m Toma,” she said, ignoring their byplay in favor of introducing herself to the blond boy. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Sa—” he started automatically, then snapped his mouth shut. “I’m not telling you!”

She blinked. “How come?”

“Why do you even wanna know?”

“You’re Ace’s friend,” Luffy answered for her. He was still tied to the tree. “We wanna be friends too!”

Sabo glanced beside him, seeing Ace pinching the bridge of his nose— these brats were starting to give him a headache. “I’ve had about enough o’ this,” the freckled boy grumbled. He made a grab for Toma, but she spun around on one foot and used her tail to swat his hand away.

“Grabbin’s not nice!” she scolded, jumping back a few feet and sticking her tongue out.

Sabo was gaping, staring at the fuzzy tail, flicking in agitation, and then at his partner. “She’s got a _ tail?!” _ he demanded.

“Huh?” Ace looked up from shaking his stinging hand. His tone and expression seemed as though they were discussing something mundane, like a light rain shower. “Oh, yeah. I guess I forgot to mention that.”

_ “HOW COULD YOU FORGET TO MENTION THAT?!!” _

Luffy was sniggering, kicking his feet lightly. _ “Shishishi, _ Toma’s really cool huh?”

“You shut up!” Ace snapped, whacking him hard on the head.

“OW!” It didn’t actually hurt since he was made of rubber, but the smaller boy cried out anyway, mostly out of habit.

“Be quiet!” Toma hissed suddenly. She was staring hard into the trees, in the direction the older boys knew led to Grey Terminal. The tip of her tail was twitching, fur standing on end.

“What?!” Ace was _ so _ not in the mood to ordered around by a five-year-old.

“Grownups’re coming this way!” she insisted, keeping her voice down. A low growl worked its way into her words. “Lots of ‘em! They’re not normal!”

Sabo paled, already having a pretty good guess what that meant. “We can’t stay here,” he said. “Ace, help me untie him! They’ll find our Pirate Fund if we don’t!”

Knowing better than to argue with Sabo when he got like this, the other boy did as he was told. The boys soon gave up on undoing the complicated knot they’d tied, instead pulling out an old hunting knife someone had thrown away and slicing through them. Hearing the large adults getting closer, all four children darted into the underbrush to hide.

“Lemme go! You bastard!!”

Except somehow Luffy got captured.

Thinking quickly, Sabo practically lay on top of Toma so that the little girl wouldn’t give away their position. He covered kid’s mouth with one hand to muffle any noises she might make, but made sure to leave space for her to breath through her nose so he didn’t smother her. (This was completely ignoring the fact that he and Ace had been ruminating not five minutes ago about killing her brother.)

Getting a look at just who it was who had grabbed the seven-year-old, both older boys paled considerably. Porchemy, and three others who must be part of Bluejam’s crew of goons— who Ace unfortunately recognized as the saps he’d robbed blind earlier in the day.

_ ‘Shitshitshitshitshit,’ _ Ace panicked, breaking into a nervous sweat. 

“Heeellllllp! Ace!!” Luffy cried out. 

_ “You idiot, why are you calling for me?!” _ he hissed quietly. _ ‘I should have killed him earlier, now we’re all gonna die!’ _Toma was squirming in Sabo’s hold, and if the blond’s grimace was any indication the kid was licking his hand to try to make him let go.

“So, you know Ace, do ya?” Porchemy asked. And, _ yep— _ there was that nervous sweat again.

“He’s my friend,” Luffy said firmly. Then, more quietly, “Oh, but he just tried to kill me...”

“He’s got such a big mouth!” Ace muttered.

“If he’s your friend, maybe you can help us,” said the pirate. “I heard Ace stole some treasure from us and ran today. If we can get it back, we wouldn’t have to hurt anybody. You don’t know where it is, do ya?”

The two stared each other down for a moment.

“We’re screwed, they’re gonna take all our treasure away for sure!” Sabo whispered worriedly.

“For once in your life, _ please _ shut up,” Ace begged towards the brat.

_ “Mmpph!” _ Toma argued. If her mouth had been uncovered, this would have been, “Luffy’s not gonna tell on you!” She was ignored by the older boys, all their attention laser-focused through the foliage at the large pirate.

“Well?” Porchemy demanded. “Are you gonna talk?”

Breaking eye contact and speaking out the side of his mouth the seven-year-old answered, “I-I don’t know… Sorry.” The pirates all gaped as the child began to whistle, completely flabbergasted that anyone on earth could possibly be _ THAT _ bad at lying. In the bushes, Ace and Sabo were having a similar reaction.

The pirates began to chuckle darkly, making Luffy glance around himself nervously from his position held in the air. 

“I’m sure you just _ ‘forgot,’ _” Porchemy said menacingly. “Don’t worry… I have ways of jogging your memory.”

The ten-year-olds watched, horrified, as the notoriously cruel pirate carried the smaller boy away. They were soon out of sight.

“What now?” Sabo asked shakily.

“Stop asking me,” Ace retorted. “You know what.”

Tired of being ignored, Toma bit the hand Sabo had been using to keep her quiet.

“Ouch!”

“We have to save Luffy!” she insisted. “He’s not gonna tell on you guys! They’re gonna hurt him, just like that shitty mountain bandit Higuma was gonna hurt us!”

“Higuma?” Ace muttered. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen him or his goons around lately.”

“The Lord of the Coast ate him,” she said with a vindictive little smile on her face. Then she scowled. “It ate Shanks’ arm, too, but he made it go away.

“Shanks saved us,” Toma said desperately, “but Shanks isn’t here anymore, so we gotta save Luffy! I’m not strong enough—” and _ oh _ how she hated to admit that— “to do it alone, I need you to help!”

Ace considered this, weighing the need to move their treasure against the intense look in the kid’s eyes.

“Ace?” Sabo asked.

“...Can you lie better than Luffy can?,” he asked finally. 

_ “Duh,” _Toma said.

“Help us move our treasure,” he told her. “Then we’ll go get your brother, if they haven’t let him go already.”

* * *

_ **-THREE HOURS LATER-** _

Sabo ran back to where he’d left Ace and that kid Toma, practically frantic with what he’d hard scouting Gray Terminal.

“There you are,” Ace said, looking up from Toma was testing a hefty branch as a possible weapon. “Well? They poking around the old pace?”

“No, that’s the thing!” the blond exclaimed, panting heavily from the run. “Bluejam’s guys are still out lookin’ for us!”

Ace paled considerably.

“You know what this means!” Sabo continued. “All this time and Luffy still didn’t rat us out! I thought he would’ve since he’s such a crybaby, but if he still hasn’t told them that means they’re_ torturing_ him right now!”

“We have to go then!” Toma was suddenly between the older boys, a hard and intense look in her eyes. The kid was holding the tree branch from earlier, clearly prepared to use it.

The boys nodded, determined. “Let's go.”

* * *

Davy Jones had worked up a pleasant buzz watching the recent events. He and Thanatos had started a drinking game when Garp had first dumped the kids with Dadan, taking shots every time Luffy and Toma turned up on Ace unexpectedly, and then again whenever the older boy did something drastic to get rid of them— and then one more every time Toma got revenge.

Davy Jones turned to his companion. “Oi… Those pirates don’t know what they’ve just gotten into.”

“Nope!” Death replied gleefully, moving off to go start a batch of popcorn. With entertainment like this, who needed wrestling?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, Sabo learns that Ace isn't the only one who doesn't back down from a fight. Who knew a five-year-old with a stick could do that much damage? The next morning Dadan does a head-count and finds she has one more brat than she was supposed to.


	3. Rescue! Fight the Bluejam Pirates!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids go to rescue Luffy from Porchemy, and Sabo slowly realizes he's the only one with a lick of self-preservation involved here. Later, Dadan does Brat Inventory and discovers they're somehow multiplying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going to blame my stifled productivity these last two weeks on the upcoming holiday and youtube spirals... That said, I wrote most of this yesterday and feel much better for having done it. Please enjoy!

Luffy dangled from the ceiling, beaten and bloody. The seven-year-old’s face was so swollen he could barely see in the dim building. His throat was raw from calling out for help, and he couldn’t hear much over the sound of his ears ringing. What he did register, however, was that asshole pirate standing in front of him, and the glint of a blade…

** _CRASH!!!_ **

_ “LEAVE HIM ALONE!!” _

_ “LET HIM GO!!” _

_ ‘Ace… and Ace’s friend…’ _ Luffy thought in a daze. _ ‘They… came for me…’ _

_ “Bastards…!” _ a distinctly higher-pitched voice growled out.

_ ‘Toma…!’ _ Though they had picked up a lot of language from the Akagami Kaizoku, Toma tended to save it for, as she put it, special occasions. 

Someone was going to get their ass kicked.

And Luffy would bet money _<strike>(if he had any)</strike>_ that it wasn’t going to be his little sister.

* * *

Busting through the wall of the rundown building had given them the element of surprise against the adults, and Ace quickly took down one of the goons with his pipe. The ten-year-old then turned cold grey eyes on the remaining pirates, causing the two smaller men to tremble.

“Th-that’s him!,” one of them told Porchemy.

“That’s the guy who robbed us!”

“What?” Porchemy rumbled. 

“A-Ace!” Luffy began struggling in his bindings once more, motivated in spite of his wounds. 

Ace made the mistake of coming at Porchemy head-on. The huge pirate dodged his attack easily, grabbing the boy up and lifting him high into the air by the neck. Ace thrashed, twisting his body this way and that in an attempt to get away, but the man’s hand seemed to cover his entire torso.

“You made it easier for us, coming here on your own,” Porchemy commented. “Your friend just didn’t wanna be helpful!”

“L-let me go, you bastard!” Ace ground out. “Sabo!”

The blond was already on it, jumping up behind Porchemy with his pipe raised. It struck the large pirate on the head with a _ CRACK!  _ and caused him to stumble, losing his grip on the freckled boy.

“That kinda hurt,” he commented, slowly turning towards Sabo. “Hey! Do you know what happens when you fuck with adults?!”

On the pirate’s other side, Ace had pulled himself off the ground and recovered his own weapon. He clanged one end on the dirt floor, getting the brute’s attention. “Quit talking and fight!” he said, deliberately egging on Porchemy. “Sabo, help Luffy!”

_ ‘...I’m trusting you to know what you’re doing, Ace.’ _ Sabo nodded just once. “He’s got a sword, so be careful!”

Not responding out loud, Ace charged again, this time doing a back-flip over the pirate. Porchemy’s cutlass met the pipe, causing Ace to grind his teeth in agitation. 

The three weakling pirates decided to take this opportunity to finally join the action, trying to land a hit on Sabo when he went for the young captive. At the same time, Toma fell on them from the rafters-- in the tense situation, no one had noticed her climb up there with the hefty branch clenched in her teeth. _ “Gyaah!”  _

The little girl went to town on the pirates. Teeth were knocked loose, family jewels were crushed, and the injuries from their earlier run-in with Ace were attacked without mercy. Many of the blows left splinters, and at one point one of the pirates tried to hit Toma from behind, only to be met with a nasty sucker-punch from the girl’s tail.

Sabo pulled a knife from one of the goons while they were distracted, slicing through the ropes binding Luffy in one go. He grabbed the smaller boy and put him over his shoulder, ready to book for the exit. “Let’s go, I’ve got him!”

“You go,” Ace said, stopping Sabo in his tracks. “I’m not done here.”

“You idiot!” his friend snapped. “Come on!”

“I don’t run from my enemies! Not ever! Got it?” There was a scuffing sound to his side, and when Ace glanced he saw it was Toma. She’d dropped the branch, now broken and splintered from her assault on the pirates unconscious in the corner. “What?”

“I’m not running either,” the kid growled out. “He hurt Luffy. I’m gonna hurt  _ him. _ ”

“Toma!” Sabo protested.

Ace just looked at her for a second before turning his attention back to Porchemy. “...Do what you want,” he told her. “Just don’t get in my way.”

_ ‘They’re both crazy! I thought Ace was bad enough on his own!’  _ Sabo thought frantically. “Ace, these guys aren’t just thugs, they’re Bluejam Pirates!”

“You should listen to your friend,” Porchemy said. “You took something from us. You’re just kids so I don’t blame you for acting stupid, but if you don’t give that treasure back you’re gonna regret it!”

Ace wasn’t having it, smacking Porchemy’s sword away with his pipe. “No way, we’ve got plans for that! Your guys couldn’t hold onto it, it’s your loss!” Toma, apparently feeling she also had a claim on it after being roped into helping move the treasure, was nodding along with the boy’s statement.

“Then you’re dead!” the man roared.

“Shit!” Sabo muttered, then whispered to Luffy, “Hold on, I’ll be right back!” The blond placed the smaller boy on the ground, moving the help the others. “Ya really like to dig your heels in, don’cha Ace?”

“Shut up. Let’s just fight!” he snipped. Toma was growling softly from her spot between the ten-year-olds, more than ready to start.

“I’ve had enough of you brats!” Porchemy struck down with his cutlass, this time slicing Ace’s pipe in two when he tried to block, leaving a deep cut on the boy’s forehead. “I’d rather kill myself than loose to brats like you!”

That was the start of what was, essentially, a brawl between the children and the pirate. Porchemy had very little technique, his bulk making it difficult for him to move with any amount of agility. The three children attacked quickly, dodging the huge sword and striking when the pirate’s attention was on one of the other two. Sabo’s pipe landed heavy blows, while Ace took advantage of the cut metal’s sharpness to inflict stabs and slices on the man. Toma, being smaller but also more vicious, and lacking a weapon since the destruction of her stick, delivered kicks, jabs, punches, and the occasional deep bite. The girl focused most of her attacks on areas the two boys had already hit, looking to inflict maximum pain and damage.

To Luffy, resting where Sabo had left him and watching the fight in awe, it seemed to go on forever. By the time night had fallen, so had Porchemy. A sustained attack from three fronts for so long, for a man who was used to ending fights brutally and quickly, had proved too much. Porchemy, bloody, bruised, with small teeth marks on his forearms and legs and several fractured bones, collapsed in a heap to the dirt floor.

Later that night, Porchemy would be found by Bluejam after the three weaker pirates regained consciousness and ran to their captain for mercy. None was given-- all four were executed by Bluejam, out of sheer disgust at their weakness. After all, how could his men be beaten by a bunch of kids?

* * *

Death looked away from the screen, popcorn halfway to his mouth. “Aren’t you going to get that?” he asked.

“Not unless he goes in the water,” Davy Jones replied. Neither entity made any move to actually get off the metaphysical couch.

There was a moment of silence before Death shrugged. “If you say so.” 

* * *

The kids hadn’t made it out of the fight unscathed, either. Ace and Sabo and broken into their emergency supply of (stolen) medical stuff, tending to the two younger kids first. Since Luffy was so much worse off, they focused on the seven-year-old first, who had started bawling less than a minute into the bandaging and hadn’t stopped since. 

The worst Toma had was a nasty slice in her cheek from not dodging Porchemy’s sword quite quick enough, and a broken nose from the bulky pirate elbowing her in the face; her other injuries were minor. Ace bandaged himself up while Sabo, who had the fewest injuries out of the lot of them, quickly stuck some bandaids to his own cuts while tending to the little girl.

_ “Dooooo,”  _ she whined fearfully. _ “Don’ touch by dose!” _

“If I don’t set it, it’ll heal like that and you’ll have a crooked nose for the rest of your life,” Sabo reasoned. She’d squirmed the whole time he’d been wiping the blood from her face, wriggling back as soon as he even brushed a nostril. 

“Don’ gare,” the girl said stubbornly.

“Quit being a crybaby!” Ace snapped, looking up from where he was bandaging his own arm. “Let Sabo fix your damn nose!”

_ “...Fine.” _ To Sabo’s surprise, she didn’t complain again through the whole process, only letting out small whines as he cleaned and set her nose, and stuffed tissues in her nostrils to catch anymore blood. She still let some tears escape, and her watery eyes almost seemed to glow under the moonlight shining through the canopy, but she didn’t give him any more trouble.

After everyone was patched up, Sabo looked to where Ace was using a ridiculous amount of medical tape to fix his broken pipe. “That was  _ really _ stupid Ace,” he scolded. “What were you thinking, robbing actual pirates?”

“I didn’t know they were with Bluejam!” the freckled boy insisted, before muttering to himself about how he’d liked his pipe better the way it was before.

“Next time we run,” Sabo said sternly. “I don’t care what your deal is! They probably told their captain all about this-- they’ll be looking for us!”

_ “I was so sc-scared,” _ Luffy sobbed, finally adding words to his tears. Toma climbed up next to him, patting her brother on the shoulder and wrapping her tail around his waist in a strange version of a hug.

Ace twitched, finally losing his temper with the crying. “Quit being such a baby! You’re not hurt that bad-- I thought you wanted to be a pirate?!”

It seemed mentioning the younger boy’s dream worked like magic, and the elder two watched in disbelief as Luffy stubbornly sucked his lips into his mouth and tensed his face painfully to stop the tears. “Th-thank you,” he choked out, bowing to express his gratitude to them. “You-- you saved me…” Beneath the brim of the straw hat, the tears started again, Luffy trembling in a vain effort to calm himself down.

“Stop crying already!” Ace snapped again.

“Ace, take it easy!” Sabo intervened, not entirely sure why Ace was letting this get to him so much. “He’s just happy, okay?”

“Why didn’t you just tell them what they wanted to know?!” Ace demanded, ignoring his friend. “You think they wouldn’t kill you ‘cause you’re a kid?! Those guys don’t give a damn!”

_ ‘Oh,’  _ Sabo thought.  _ ‘Does Ace… feel guilty?’ _

“I… I was afraid,” Luffy said, still not looking up. Toma had moved, pressing her back against her brother’s side with her long tail still wrapped around his waist. She was looking at her hands in her lap, bandaged over where her knuckles had split from fighting Porchemy, not looking at the older boys at all. “I was afraid you wouldn’t be our friend…”

“That still beats  _ dying, _ doesn’t it?!” Ace said. “Why do you even wanna be my friend? I’ve been giving you two hell ever since we met!”

“B-because…” he started. “There’s no one else, okay?!”

“What…?”

“We can’t go back to Fuusha Village, and I hate mountain bandits… That’s why we always follow you all the time,” Luffy choked out. “Getting beat up hurts, but  _ being lonely hurts way more!” _

“Lonely?” Ace asked in a softer tone. “What do ya mean?”

“It’s just me and Toma,” Luffy said. His sister was now looking over at Ace too, eyes just as serious. “Gramps is never around… Makino’s back at Fuusha…”

“Your parents?” he tried.

“Don’t got any.”

“...You feel better around  _ me? _ ” he asked, somewhat incredulously. 

“Uh-huh,” both kids nodded.

“You’re lonely when I’m not there?”

More nodding.

Ace thought back to what those drunks in the bar had said a while ago, and everyone else he’d ever asked about Roger possibly having a kid. “You think… I deserve to live?” he asked softly. Sabo winced, knowing this was a sore spot.

The kids’ eyes widened, blinking once before both answered simultaneously and without hesitation.  ** _“Of course we do!!”_ ** Toma’s tail was now twitching in agitation, and Sabo thought she’d whack Ace in the head with it if he were closer.

“I see…” Ace turned his back on them, attempting to hide his emotions at that answer. “...But you’re still weak little crybabies. Ya piss me off.” It lacked the bite of his earlier statements to that effect, but it still managed to get a rise from the kids.

“Hey! Take that back! I’m strong!” Luffy shouted, jumping down.

“Yeah! Take it back! I fought Porchy too!” Toma added.

“You were crying the whole time you were tied up!” Ace countered. “An’  _ you _ put up a stink about lettin’ Sabo fix your nose!”

“You try getting hit with spikes that big! I’m only seven!”

“Yeah, an’ I’m only five! An’ I  _ did _ let him fix it!”

“After I told you to!” Ace reminded her.

“I still did, though!”

“When we’re ten years old like you, then we won’t cry anymore!” Luffy insisted.

“I didn’t cry like that when I  _ was _ seven!”

“Okay, I think that’s enough,” Sabo said, getting in the middle before the argument got out of hand. “In case you three forgot, we’ve got a problem.”

The other three stared blankly, prompting a mental sigh from the blond.  _ ‘Yep, they forgot.’ _

“Bluejam’s definitely going to come after us after what happened,” he said. “Like you said Ace, they don’t care if we’re kids, they’ll kill us without a second thought.”

“Oh, yeah…” Ace murmured. Toma swallowed the lump that had gathered in her throat.

“This forest is where I’ve been living, but it’s close to their hide-out,” Sabo told them, taking on an official tone. “What if one night I’m a little too tired… sleep a little too deep… and they sneak up on me?”

“You’d be dead,” Ace said. A cold feeling washed down his spine at the thought. 

Luffy nodded, looking pale. “ _ Way _ dead.”

“Exactly,” Sabo said, turning to look at the others with a smirk. “That’s why I need your help…”

* * *

The next morning, noticing the brats had slept in, some of the bandits climbed the ladder to the upper floor to wake them. What they saw stopped them in their tracks, jaws dropping in astonishment.

“What’s with all the bandages?” Dogra asked. “What, have they been fightin’ bears or somethin’?”

“That’s… not the problem…” Magra muttered, having noticed something the others hadn’t yet.

“Hey boss!” Dogra called down the ladder. “Ya better come see this!”

Dadan came up, only to gape just like her subordinates. “What have those brats been up to now?!” the large woman exclaimed. “Wait a second… Ace… Luffy… Toma… huh?” She rubbed her eyes hard, then looked at the puddle of snoring children, hoping she’d been wrong. “One… two… three… FOUR?!” Nope, no matter how many times she did Brat Inventory, she came up with one too many. Finally getting fed up, she shouted, “ACE, LUFFY, TOMA! Who’s this other kid with you, huh?!”

_ “Who--wha--? _ Meat??” Luffy mumbled blearily.

“It’s too early for questions,” Ace complained, “quit shoutin’, will ya?”

“Too loud…” Toma grumbled, barely audible through the blanket she’d bunched into a make-shift pillow.

“Three brats is already too many!” Dadan lamented, then addressed the new addition directly, “Who the hell’re you?”

“Hm, ya mean me…?” the blond boy asked sleepily, rubbing at his eyes. He pulled himself together quickly, smiling and showing off a missing tooth. “Hi there, I’m Sabo!”

“Sabo? Ace’s friend?” Dadan blinked, recognizing the name.

“Oh good,” Sabo chirped, “it’s like I’m already living here! And you must be Dadan, right? Nice to meet you!”

“Living…? Wait a minute, nobody said you could stay!” she protested. 

“Eheh,” Sabo just kept smiling. A small sound like a leaking balloon was heard, making the older woman twitch.

“Don’t answer me with a fart!” The boy laughed nervously, but couldn’t contain a second one. “Ugh, if you’re the Sabo I heard about, you’re just as bad as those other low-life brats moochin’ off me!”

“Oh really?” Sabo asked, not dropping his smile in the slightest. The farts hadn’t been planned, but well, he could work with what he had. “I heard that you’re a worthless old hag, yourself.”

This was punctuated with yet a third fart, and the bandits fell over where they were gathered behind their leader. “You really shouldn’t be mouthin’ off like that!” Dadan said, before remembering the conversation they were having and correcting herself. “And you’re not staying, anyway! I won’t deal with anymore unruly brats!”

“I also heard that you’re a  _ nice _ old hag that wouldn’t leave a kid like me to die in the woods,” Sabo said sweetly. 

“...Huh?”

“And, you’re a tough old hag too, so I’ll be sure to mind my manners!”

“O-okay, the tough part is true, but… stop calling me a hag! Damn brat!” Dadan began to sweat, the happy facade and somewhat backhanded compliments getting to her. The longer the brat grinned at her, the more she realized how screwed she was…  _ ‘Damn me and my soft heart!’  _ she thought, unable to look at Sabo’s smiling face any longer. 

In other words, she broke first. 

“Listen up! There aren’t any free rides here, ya got it?! All you brats better pull your weight and get to work since you’re living here!”

“You got it!” Sabo replied. Behind him he heard the others getting to their feet, wide awake after all the commotion. “Thank you~”

Yep, his plan had worked like a charm!


End file.
